Defense & Security

Japan Lodges Protest with China over Helicopter Incursion into Territorial Airspace; China Points Finger at Japanese Rightists

Courtesy of the Japan Coast Guard
A helicopter takes off from the deck of a China Coast Guard vessel.

By Akiko Yoshinaga / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

15:13 JST, May 5, 2025

BEIJING — The deputy minister at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Sunday strongly protested against the Saturday incursion of a Chinese helicopter into Japanese territorial airspace, during a meeting with a Chinese government official.

The minister, Akira Yokochi, also demanded that Beijing take measures to prevent a recurrence.

The helicopter violated Japanese airspace on the day after taking off from a China Coast Guard (CCG) ship near the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture.

At the meeting on Sunday, Liu Jinsong, director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Asian Affairs Department, claimed that a civilian aircraft operated by Japanese rightists had violated Chinese airspace over the Diaoyu Islands (the Chinese name for the Senkakus), according to the ministry.

A spokesperson for the CCG on Saturday said that a helicopter took off from one of its vessels, which had been navigating the waters around the Senkaku Islands, to warn the Japanese aircraft to leave in accordance with the law.

CCG vessels have repeatedly intruded into Japanese territorial waters around the islands, as China moves to normalize its attempts to change the status quo by force.